


He'll Do

by victoriagrayson



Category: Riverdale (TV 2017)
Genre: Cheryl just wants to be loved, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-27
Updated: 2017-04-27
Packaged: 2018-10-24 12:23:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,077
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10741626
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/victoriagrayson/pseuds/victoriagrayson
Summary: She tries really hard not to like him, honest she does. Cheryl centric. Post 1x09 & 1x10, platonic twincest mentions.





	He'll Do

**Author's Note:**

> I don't even know what this is but my heart hurts for the loss of Cheryl's closest friend and everything, Jason, and if you could find a shiny sorta substitute in Archie Andrews well... why wouldn't you take it?

She tries really hard not to like him, honest she does. A Blossom cannot like an _Andrews_ anymore than she could like a _Cooper_ or a _Lodge_. And yet here she is. Smiling up at him like the sun rises and sets for his pretty freckled face.

And she **hates** herself for it.

Because Archie Andrews is good and pure and a huge thorn in her side but sometimes he looks at her like she's not the monster everyone thinks she is. Like she knows she can be.

It reminds her of Jay-Jay, that's all.

The way he stands there and defends her to the board, tall, proud, and red.. it was like Jason was right there with her. He never let anyone speak to her the way the board members had, he stood up for her to their parents, he had always made her she felt like she was loved. Truly, honestly and beautifully _loved_.

So what if it was a little... weird? Twins were better than any ordinary, boring rules for siblings, they were **special**. Two halves of a whole, they couldn't be without the other.. and yet here she was and he _wasn't_ and nothing felt real anymore and.. what _was_ she without Jay-Jay?

She was a half, a part of something that didn't work anymore. Like a broken clock you tossed away. It felt awful and lonely and a hundred other things she couldn't put to words. Maybe that's why she gravitated to Archie sometimes because... he was nice? Because he understood what it was like to feel alone while completely surrounded by people? Because it was easy? He gave everyone far more chances than they deserve and that would be his greatest downfall. Cheryl was sure it would be on his headstone someday: Archie Andrews, he trusted well. What an idiot. 

But Jay-Jay had been trusting, he knew what it was like to be alone. It had been just them for so long.. they didn't really know what it was like to not be together, side by side, facing the world and all that got in their way. 

It didn't mean anything negative. It was their positive, their line life. Because Clifford Blossom and his wife weren't good parents, they weren't even somewhat decent parents. They provided the bare minimum level of parenting and then left their children to nannies and tutors. All their lives it was two instead of one. The twins refused to be like them, so cold and uncaring. But they were really no different, were they? 

Jay-Jay had been in the book, he participated in something so disgusting and he didn't tell her which hurt even more, especially after she'd defended him so relentlessly to the naysayers. She thought she knew every part of him, had she been wrong? Had he not loved her the same way she loved him? Wasn't she still his Queen above all? So maybe she'd been a little wrong but it didn't mean anything, it was just one... or two, Polly, things. Maybe he hadn't told her because he didn't want to hurt her, he hated to see her cry that was it. It really wasn't a nice cry...  

But it didn't mean anything, it just meant he was being a good brother. A protector. Her protector. The one person who should have _always_ been there...  

And now, there was a dark void that only sort of felt filled when she was around Archie, not his friends, just Archie. Kinda like Jay-Jay was looking back at her, even though she knew it was silly to think that way.

But Cheryl did _not_ have a twincest thing with her brother and it was shitty of Veronica to even suggest it in the first place. She just loved Jason more than she loved herself because he was absolutely everything she could have been if she was just.. not a girl. Or born first. Or whatever. He lived for both of them and now, he died for nothing. She was nothing to her parents and Polly and her babies were taking front and center stage, and it seemed as if she were the only one still truly morning her twin. Her parents had their replacement wonder children, what did they need her for? 

Even in death he was sort of showing her up and had those babies not been Jason's then she wouldn't have minded for a second. But they were part of Jay-Jay, that made them part of _her_. They made her feel guilty and confused and like she wanted to love them but then they were also part of Polly and that meant Betty and all the other ridiculous Cooper people. Which meant everybody else too and it all lead back to Archie, somehow.

Either way, she was left to pick up the pieces he left behind and try her best to stay as shiny and bright as he always thought she was. Beloved. It was the best feeling in the world and none of these morons would ever understand how good it felt, they might say they did but they would never _really_ understand. So she clings to it, like a well-worn blanket and struts on like the owns the damn world and tries to forget the momentary pangs of guilt she'll get after she betrays Archie, it isn't the first time and it won't be the last either and yet every time she's done it in the past, to anyone, she always looked to Jason for his reaction, for his praise or his disappointment. 

She would have followed him anywhere, she did, time and time again and yet the last time... he wouldn't let her go with him. He left without her. For two people who came into the world together, they were supposed to have left it together and Jason betrayed her by not taking her with him. He did it without a second thought for her, just like she does it without thought to Archie.

She'll never have it again from the person she truly wants it from the most, but Archie Andrews isn't the worst substitute either. This time, she'll be the leader and he'll look to her instead. He will look at her like she always looked at Him and he won't see a monster. He'll just see Cheryl, the best person he could ever be on a team with.

He'll do. He just doesn't know it yet.


End file.
